Currently, various ski systems exist for physically challenged individuals. The current systems include the use of a seating apparatus attached to a conventional ski or a monoski where the user faces forward and in line with the longitudinal direction of the ski. Usually these systems require specialized poles for balance or stability, as well as directional guidance while in use. Also, some of the monoski systems are used with the assistance of another non-physically challenged skier who provides guidance and assists the physically challenged skier in maintaining balance and controlling their path of movement.
Other systems for physically challenged skiers provide a seating assembly attached in a forward facing orientation to a pair of skis. The seating assembly allows the user to face forward and use ski-crutches or other specialized poles in order to control their path of motion.
Still other monoski systems use steering devices such as handles that attach to the single ski. The steering devices require the user to lean forward in a kneeling position and from that position attempt to maintain balance and directional control. This type of steering means leaves the physically challenged user vulnerable to loss of balance or directional control and leaves them highly susceptible to injury.
While standing skiers not otherwise physically challenged are able to exert both weight shifting and rotational movements to control direction, it is very difficult for a seated skier to use such body motion to affect directional control.
A further problem commonly associated with the ski systems designed for the physically challenged involves the inability to use a conventional ski lift in the usual manner.
The above systems are generally directed to use for downhill snow skiing. However, systems adapted to use by physically challenged users are also available for water skiing. In water skiing, propulsion and primary directional guidance are provided by gripping a tow rope attached to a power boat. Weight shifting is the primary means for directional control. Using one ski requires greater skill and agility than using two, as balance becomes a more critical issue.
The physically challenged water skier is generally towed on a two-ski assembly or on a platform wide enough to provide stability from tipping over sideways. Basic water skiing in this manner requires a lesser overall control capability of the user and ski system for maintaining balance and applying directional control. As in conventional snow skiing, the water skier faces forward in line with the longitudinal direction of the ski. Both snow skis and water skis are limited in their lateral motion over the support medium; their long, narrow shape designed primarily for forward movement.
Skateboards use a wheel assembly on each end that steers left or right both to maintain balance and control direction in response to the user's weight-shifting. Frames have been adapted to skateboards to allow a user to sit, kneel or crouch down on the skateboard and hold on to outriggers to help in weight-shifting; however, these adaptations constrain riders to face primarily forward.
Snowboards, arriving relatively recently, are shorter and wider than snow skis. They are mounted in a transverse fashion, are capable of being rotated and controlled by a combination of weight shifting and body twisting, and can be ridden laterally or longitudinally at will down the slope. They have, however, been inaccessible to physically challenged users, until now.